Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Spice Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Cream the butter until smooth.
Add the sugar, egg yolks, and spices; beat until very light.
Dissolve the baking soda in a teaspoon of sour cream and mix it into the batter.
Fold in the beaten egg whites and enough flour to achieve a batter consistency.
Stir in the prepared fruit (stoned raisins and chopped citron).
Bake
Pour the batter into paper-lined pans and bake.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Adds richness and a tender crumb when creamed with the sugar.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps keep the cake tender and moist.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter, and the beaten whites add air that lifts the cake.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the sour cream's acidity to release gas that raises the cake.
- Sour cream
- Supplies the acid that activates the baking soda and adds moisture.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. The whites trap air that lifts the cake in the oven. Stirring them in vigorously deflates the foam, leaving a dense, heavy crumb, so fold gently until just combined.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, raisin, cream, cinnamon, egg, flour):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Allspicefits about as well
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, raisin, cream, cinnamon, egg, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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